In the Atelier: Michel Garcia

Welcome back to watching people work! Sometimes we can get new ideas for solving problems and performing tasks, just by seeing how other people do things. To learn more about the art and science of dyeing, we're watching a few accomplished dyers at work using YouTube videos. In the last video, we learned from Sachio Yoshioka of Kyoto, Japan (see In the Atelier: Sachio Yoshioka).

This time we're visiting the studio and workshops of Michel Garcia of Provence, France. He is a dyer, phyto-chemist (studies the chemicals derived from plants), and botanist. The Natural Dye Workshop posts four trailers that promote his workshops and DVDs. The trailers and DVDS are produced by Yoshiko I. Wada, the founder of Slow Fiber Studios (located right here in the East Bay). 




I'm including one of the trailers in this post, but recommend watching all of them. Even as promotional videos, you can learn a lot about materials, tools, and techniques used in dye projects. Following is what caught my attention!

Trailer I: Colors of Provence using Sustainable Methods

Garcia demonstrates working with two historical plant dyes, madder  (Rubia tinctorum) and indigo (Indigofera tinctoria). He compares historical dye techniques with more sustainable methods that don't use lead or other toxic chemicals. Different mordants can provide a wide range of results. He recommends using common household items like vinegar, lime, and alum as mordants; and demonstrates using guar gum syrup as a mordant for brush work and block printing.

He also demonstrates how to extract the sap from indigo leaves, making a simple infusion, similar to making tea. The infusion is strained and dried, and the pigment is extracted. Garcia challenges dyers to reuse dyes and mordant to the last drop, and work with what we have to achieve dramatic colors.

Trailer II: Colors of the Americas on Wool Fibers using Sustainable Methods

Garcia is enthusiastic about the dyes of Mexico, and Latin America's rich history of beautiful textiles. Ancient dyers in the Americas used indigo for blue, cochineal and lac (insects) for red, and various local plants for yellow. The traditional indigo recipe used indigo leaves, local lime juice, and organic matter (such as chopped cactus leaf) for dyeing. Over-dyeing was used to achieve some colors, such as dyeing first with red and then blue to achieve purple, or dyeing blue and then yellow to achieve green.

The Zapotec's used plants and cochineal with additives like lime juice to produce many shades of red. For sustainability, modern household waste, such as fruit skins, can be used to produce dyes. Tannins also come from ordinary sources like Quercus infectoria, oak gallnut, and Lengua de vaca, with additives such as local lime, natural alum, and pomegranate. He also notes that the colors produced from all these dyes have a natural harmony of color.

Trailer III: Colors of Europe

Back to Provence, Garcia demonstrates working with some of the plants available in Europe. He focuses on the historical plant dye, weld (Reseda luteola), from which you can produce a paste pigment as well as a dye. We also get a few shots of his studio with great storage, work tables, and appliances such as a blender, electric tea kettle, and burners. He describes how to extract the sap from flowers such as common garden flowers and the blossoms of the Pagoda tree (Sophora japonica) to make an infusion that produces a bright yellow.

You can see the phyto-chemist and botanist at work as he describes how to use the extractions in combinations with ferrous salt, alum salt, titanium, and gum to produce different colors and effects. He demonstrates block printing and silk screen printing using the natural dyes. He mentions the reds produced by insects from the Mediterranean and the Americas, and from the madder root (used in the ancient wall paintings in Pompeii as well as to dye fabric). Garcia describes using powdered pigments to make water colors, and demonstrates how to make plaster paint for a plaster wall.

Trailer IV: Colors of the Sea in Brittany

(Currently unavailable) Garcia reviews some of the traditional methods used to process indigo, such as drying leaves to create a paste that can be used for paint or dye, and composting indigo leaves to preserve for later use. The traditional approach uses lots of water. Instead he works with the dried, condensed leaves and uses far less water. He mixes colors that were used historically for hair dyes as well as for dyeing, including rhubarb, henna, alkanet, and safflower.

Garcia also shares his knowledge of the various natural mordants that are readily available in nature, including calcium chloride (sea salt and lime), soda ash (burned seaweed), shell lime and sugar. The class opens the gates for the huge garden of color that nature provides.

Studio Takeaways

In summary, here are a few of my takeaways from seeing Garcia at work in his studio and workshops. He uses various industrial gas burners (from small to large), which are portable and support multiple temperature settings. He uses glass beakers for some of his smaller dye projects. This is fantastic for demonstrations and dyeing yarn (I wonder how practical that would be for larger projects, like our dish towels).

He uses common items like wooden stir sticks (large and small), a hand blender, a variety of plastic and glass containers for mixing. His knowledge of chemistry serves him well; he squeezes in lime juice, crumbles up clam shells, and tosses in various salts. Best of all is his "just try it" attitude, and the many examples of beautiful colors that his experiments produce!

I hope you enjoyed this peek into Michel Garcia's atelier. If these trailers are informative, imagine how much more the DVDs would be (no, this is not a paid endorsement, just an appreciative response)! Seeing his workshop, tools, and processes makes me want to learn more and adapt some ideas for my home studio.